Freelance marketplace in US
If you are an entrepreneur, or venturing into the startupworld, you will realize something very quickly. Hiring quality talent is difficultand expensive. While startups and businesses, in general, fail because of abroad range of reasons, inability to hire quality talent is one of the majorreasons. If you need quality talent, but lack the budget to hire full-time,looking to freelancers may be the answer.
The freelance labor market allows you to cherry-pick toptalent and pay relatively low amounts to acquire their services. Be warned,however, that the freelance marketplace is not without its challenges. In thisarticle, we give you some tips to navigate these choppy waters to find afreelance solution that works for you. See also: Marketingand advertising
How to Hire
How you hire plays a big part in who you hire and, theoutcome of that hire. Some things that could go wrong include; hiring unskilledpersons, time zone mismatching, language barriers, and a host of others. Hereare some points to follow to avoid these pitfalls.
Requirements
First, write down your project requirements. Unlike afull-time hire who will be around as you figure out the way forward,freelancers require a highly specified project plan to deliver results.Determine the timelines, deliverables, milestones and every other detail you cansqueeze into the project plan. Rule of thumb: the more detailed it is, thebetter.
Budget
Next, set a budget. This is the trickiest part. If you gorecruiting with a blank check, you will get quotes from as low as a few hundreddollars to thousands of dollars. To properly gauge your budget, talk to a fewfriends and bounce budget ideas off them. You can also look at what otherclients are paying for similar projects. Consider setting a minimum and maximumso you allow room for negotiating. See also: Find home service
Recruit
Cast your net wide. Look for as many quality freelancers asyou can and invite them to come for an interview. What you are looking for hereis availability. The best talent is useless to you if they are unavailable.Once you lock down several freelancers with top skills, who have shown interestin your project, it is time to review.
Review
Peruse their past projects. What did past clients have tosay? How were they rated? How many similar projects have they undertaken? Nevertake a freelancer's word concerning their skills. Test all of them to determinetheir skill level. Once you find one that works, interview the freelancer andthen get started.
Where to Hire
Now that you have a good idea of what to do when hiring afreelancer, where do you find them? Here are some places to look.
Major Marketplaces
Today, major marketplaces that you can find freelancersinclude Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, and Guru. The main advantage of going withthese marketplaces is the depth and breadth of talent available. The mainchallenge, on the other hand, is sifting the wheat from the chaff. You willhave to work harder to surface and hire the right talent for your project. Seealso: Bestgraphics and design
Specialized Marketplaces
These are smaller niche sites like 99designs, Toptal, QuiGig- hire now, Matchist and others. These sites offer a better experience becausethey invest a lot in recruiting quality talent for their platforms, as well asin value-added platform features. This makes it easy to get top talent. Onenotable downside is they are often more expensive.
Portfolio Sites
These include sites like Behance, Dribbble, Stack Overflowand GitHub. On these sites, you have an opportunity to see upfront what thefreelancer has accomplished. The main challenge with these platforms is they donot provide project management tools and, it is often difficult to ascertain theauthenticity of a portfolio.
Social Platforms
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit also offer a fertile groundfor recruitment. Most of these platforms have groups, or communities, offreelancers where you can go and post a job and get proposals. While this is aneasy option, you will face the challenge of vetting proposals and figuring outhow to move forward once you hire.
Hiring the best freelancers takes time and patient reviewingand vetting. However, a talented and reliable freelancer, once discovered, can addexceptional value to your project over time.
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